Monday, May 27, 2013

Infidel Body Armor 2.0

A while back, Sir Knight and I field tested AR500 Body Armor by Infidel Body Armor. We had heard a lot of hype about this armor and wanted to put it to the test. We started with smaller caliber weapons and slowly made our way up the food chain. We found the Infidel motto "Just Won't Quit" to be supremely accurate when dealing with the calibers this armor was rated for, but, we couldn't help ourselves - we wanted to test its limits and punch a few holes in the stuff! Lets face it, you don't really go to a hockey game to see guys in helmets push pucks around the ice, you go to see blood. We wanted to make this armor bleed...

As promised, in addition to hitting the armor with 9mm, .45 acp., M855, 7.62x51 and 12 gauge rifled slugs, we brought out the big boys. If you'll remember, none of the firepower we hit the AR500 with in our first round penetrated the plate. Even the .223 penetrators (M855) came up short. Our next course of action was to shoot the armor with rounds that exceeded the rated limitations of this armor (Threat III), just to see how it performed.

First out, an oldie but a goldie, a bolt action 30.06. We used surplus 30.06 ap (armor piercing). This stuff has a tungsten steel core that is a little smaller than a .22 caliber projectile on the inside. Again, to get the full effect, we were shooting from approximately 50 yards. We wanted to hit the plate hard. Much to our surprise, the 30.06 ap defeated the plate handily. The projectile passed right through the coating and the plate and out the back side - not deterred in the least. We really thought the 30.06 ap would have at least been slowed down by the Infidel armor, but we were mightily mistaken.

Despite no black tip - the ammunition is steel cored - the projectile is touching a magnet

First downrange - 30.06 ap

Zipped right through

Pieces of the jacket caught in the outer coating

Having blown a hole in it already, we thought there could be no harm in further blowing the armor to smithereens. We brought out the AR50. For those of you who don't know, the AR50 is a single shot, bolt action upper in 50BMG (browning machine gun) that attaches to a standard AR15 lower. Again, for those of you who don't know, 50BMG is a WWII anti-aircraft round. It is huge! The projectiles we were using were called API, which means Armor Piercing Incendiary. Not only did the 50BMG zip through the plate, it left a crater in our shooting backstop almost a foot deep. It also completely separated the coating from the front of the steel plate. Amazingly, the back coating stayed in tact. I have to admit, it was fun shooting the 50BMG - not only does it pack a punch, but with the incendiary rounds, it had a really bright flash when it hit the plate. Very cool!

Do you see how big the 50BMG round is when standing next to 30.06?

Adjusting the windage on the .50

The 50BMG crater

The plate had its coating blown off by the 50BMG

That's a really big hole!

All in all, the AR500 Infidel Body Armor measures up. This is the armor to have. It handily defeats every common round that is likely to be encountered anywhere on this continent. It can take numerous (probably hundreds) of rounds and still retain its integrity, making it the survivalist/prepper's friend.

Although we did end up defeating this armor, it surpassed all of our expectations. Infidel makes a great product, offered at a great price. Their customer service is exceptional. While I hope never to NEED body armor, I love the peace of mind of having Infidel Body Armor in my armory.

4 comments:

When I was in the Navy, I was on several different gun mounts including a 30 mm fully automatic cannon. It was one of the older models, not the new chain guns you find on the Bradley vehicles or Apache gunships.I sure would like to "punch" a hole with a 30 mm in a piece of that infindel body armor just to see what happens (its a guy thing)

Thank you so much for your concern, but, we don't actually own any API or AP ammo. If you will notice, the gentleman in the photos is not Sir Knight. We asked someone who had the appropriate rifles and ammunition to our range so that we could test these plates.

There is no "take it down" anymore, if there ever was. The post, as well as the visitor list for this blog, is all being saved somewhere. Whether it is ever used against you or not, well, that is in the Lord's hands. Trust him.

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I am a christian, conservative, survival minded, homeschooling,off-grid, independent, home-birthing, Proverbs 31, Titus 2 minded 40 year old woman. I live with my husband and five children in our solar/generator powered shop on 30 acres. We are homestead types who try to do as much as we can ourselves, but understand the importance of community.